Tiny Iowa Town Offers $5 Bounty On Stray Cats

[Kor37 9]

Tiny Iowa town offers $5 bounty on stray cats; those not claimed will face euthanasia

By MELANIE S. WELTE,AP

Posted: 2008-03-12 09:10:21

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Attention, cat haters: A tiny town in Iowa is offering $5 (euro3.25) bounty for each feral feline turned in

 

Those not claimed will be destroyed.

 

Mayor Vance Trively says that Randolph, the southwest Iowa town of 200 people, is being overrun by dozens of feral cats and needed to do something.

 

"You can't just let them keep multiplying in town," Trively said Tuesday.

 

Town officials approved the bounty after receiving numerous complaints, ranging from a cat attacking a small dog to a dozen cats showing up at the bowl when a resident tried to feed his own cat.

 

"One guy threatened to shoot all of them. I told him he couldn't do that in town. Other people talk about poisoning them, but you can't do that in town," Trively said.

 

Under the new policy, stray cats without collars will be taken to a veterinarian in the nearby town of Sidney - Randolph has no vet clinic - where they'll be kept "for a time for people to claim them," the mayor said.

 

If no one does, they'll be euthanized and buried.

 

Since the bounty went into effect March 1, two cats - one of them pregnant - have been turned in.

Actually, the money is being put up by the local Chinese restaurant.............